1 Sources of International Human Rights 1
1.1 Treaties 3
1.2 Customary international law 14
1.3 Other international and regional instruments 19
1.4 A practical guide to sources 28
Further reading 35
2 Key Concepts: Universality, Interdependence and Categories of Rights 36
2.1 Universality 36
2.2 Cultural sensitivity 50
2.3 Positive obligations on States to conform to human rights 65
2.4 Indivisibility and interdependence or a hierarchy of rights? 71
2.5 Interdependence and indivisibility 72
2.6 Evolving and developing rights 75
Further reading 75
3 States and Treaty Obligations 77
3.1 Universal human rights and ratification 78
3.2 Limitations on State compliance: reservations, declarations, derogations and denunciations 83
3.3 Reservations 83
3.4 Declarations 98
3.5 Derogations 101
3.6 Denunciations 113
Further reading 119
4 Human Rights Organisations and Key Institutions 120
4.1 International organisations 121
4.2 The United Nations 121
4.3 International courts 139
4.4 The International Labour Organisation 146
4.5 Regional organisations 150
4.6 Europe 152
4.7 The Americas 174
4.8 Africa 175
4.9 Others 175
Further reading 179
5 Monitoring and Enforcing Human Rights: Extra-Conventional Mechanisms 181
5.1 Human Rights Council 182
5.2 The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) 205
5.3 United Nations Security Council and sanctions 211
5.4 International criminal courts, tribunals and processes 215
5.5 Organisation of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights 227
Further reading 231
6 Implementing Human Rights Treaties: Committees and Courts 233
6.1 United Nations treaty monitoring bodies: conventional mechanisms 234
6.2 Regional systems and creating judicial mechanisms 282
6.3 Remedies for individuals 290
Further reading 297
7 National Institutions for Protecting and Promoting Human Rights 299
7.1 States and international (human rights) law 300
7.2 The international approach to national institutions 310
7.3 The regional position on national institutions 321
7.4 Nature of national institutions 321
7.5 Examples of national institutions 322
7.6 Conclusions 329
7.7 Children's commissioners—a special case? 329
Further reading 337
8 Extending the Duties to Protect and Respect Human Rights: Non-State Actors 338
8.1 Non-governmental organisations 339
8.2 Business and multinational corporations 350
8.3 Educators, lawyers and individuals 379
Further reading 386
9 Reforming the International and Regional Human Rights Systems 389
9.1 The bigger picture—human rights and United Nations reform 391
9.2 Ongoing reform of United Nations treaty monitoring bodies 403
9.3 Towards universal ratification of key instruments 431
9.4 Regional reforms 432
Further reading 435
10 Protecting Children 437
10.1 Children as humans 438
10.2 Tabulating children's rights 446
10.3 The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 452
10.4 Governing principles 454
10.5 Regional instruments 478
Further reading 479
11 Detainees, Prisoners and Convicts 481
11.1 Equality before the law 482
11.2 Arrest 485
11.3 Disappearances 488
11.4 Detention pending trial 502
11.5 Torture and the use of force 507
11.6 Fair trial 511
11.7 Detention after conviction 526
11.8 Juveniles in captivity and court 535
11.9 Capital punishment 540
Further reading 545
12 Indigenous Peoples and Their Rights 547
12.1 Towards recognition of indigenous rights 547
12.2 Invoking minority rights 552
12.3 The scope of'indigenous people' 571
12.4 Rights claimed by indigenous people 573
12.5 The right to self-determination 573
12.6 Land rights 583
12.7 Cultural rights 601
Further reading 603
13 The Protection of Refugees, Stateless Persons and Internally Displaced People 605
13.1 Who is a refugee? 607
13.2 Procedures for determining refugee status 614
13.3 Termination of refugee status 625
13.4 Regional instruments and criteria for determining refugee status and addressing refugee rights 632
13.5 Rights of refugees 637
13.6 Granting asylum to refugees and others 647
13.7 Internally displaced 648
13.8 High Commissioner for Refugees 649
13.9 Stateless persons 652
Further reading 663
14 Protecting and Promoting the Rights of Women 664
14.1 Leading the way: the International Labour Organisation 665
14.2 Equality 668
14.3 Tabulating women's rights 685
14.4 Protection from persecution: trafficking, exploitation 698
14.5 Violence against women 704
14.6 Family rights: marriage and children 723
14.7 Regional instruments and approaches to women's rights 730
Further reading 733
Index 735